


A Little Affection

by adenium (peccolia)



Series: Someone to love and care for [1]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, First Love, Fluff, Other, Post-Canon, post pacifist markus ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-21
Updated: 2018-06-21
Packaged: 2019-05-26 16:05:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15004439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peccolia/pseuds/adenium
Summary: Luther smiled. “Kara…you worked so hard looking after us. I want to look afteryou, now. Will you let me?”





	A Little Affection

**Author's Note:**

> I'm in love with these two and they need more love and deserve all the happiness so here’s a little contribution, part 1 of a short 3-part series. Hope you enjoy! (Also I named Rose's brother.)

Kara liked to keep busy.

Whether it was caring for Alice to make sure she had every comfort possible or tending to the daily household chores, she never really stopped. Just kept going, going, going.

At first, Luther thought it was her way of coping with the uprising in Detroit and their exodus to Canada, but it had already been months, now. Two exactly, even. They were safe here with Rose and her family, and the world was well on its way to change thanks to Markus and Connor and everyone else working hard to pave the way for androidkind.   

He asked Alice what she thought, when tucking her into bed and reading her a bedtime story one night, and she only shrugged and said Kara had always been like that. Always taking care of things. It was just how she was.

The problem was that she was _always_ like that. Never taking a break, even when the rest of the house was fast asleep deep into the night. Never resting in the bed across from his in the guest room they shared and instead spending most of her time downstairs, cleaning.

If a picture frame hung crooked, she fixed it back into place. If dishes remained in the drying rack on the kitchen counter, she dried them and put them away. If someone’s snow boots weren’t lined up neatly by the door, she corrected that, too. If even a few specks of dust had settled on the tiled floors, she took out the broom and cleaned it all away again. If there were fingerprints on the TV screen—

“Kara.” He interrupted her before the cloth in her hand could clear away the smudges, stepping away from the stairs and stopping beside the sofa in plain sight. “Aren’t you going to sleep?”

She straightened up and turned to him as if she hadn’t seen him coming, even with his reflection clear on the screen, backlit by the soft light filtering in from the kitchen. No—maybe she’d been so focused on cleaning that she really didn’t see him. She held the cloth behind her back like she’d been caught doing something she shouldn’t be, lips pressing together before a soft smile spread across her face. “Oh, Luther, I—no, I can’t sleep. I know it’s good to go into rest mode from time to time, but I…” Her quiet words trailed off. “I’ll go soon. Don’t worry about me.”

“You didn’t come to bed last night. Or the night before that.” He took another step forward, looking down at the pillows she’d fluffed and set upright on the sofa cushions earlier—twice. He wouldn’t be surprised if he’d kept quiet and she nitpicked at them a third time. “You’re family, Kara. Of _course_ I worry. I haven’t seen you take a break since we got here.” His eyes traveled up to meet hers.

Her smile fell, and so did her gaze. She brought the cloth from behind her back and held it in front of her, clutching it in both hands and wringing it slightly, caught up in her own thoughts. “It’s just—Rose, and Adam, and James—they’ve done so much for us. _Risked_ so much. No matter what I do, I feel like it’s never enough to repay them. So…sometimes I slip back into what I’m familiar with. Old housecleaning protocols.” She paused, looking up to him again. Almost speaking again, but losing the words and letting her lips press together again. She rambled, when she was nervous, when she was confronted and unprepared, but there was still a genuine worry in her words.

He reached out a careful hand, laying it gently over both of hers and noticing how it was large enough to cover them. Noticing just how _small_ she was. So small, but so, so strong. Stronger than him, even. 

“Kara, you know you don’t have to do that anymore. You can do whatever you want, here. _Be_ whatever you want.”

She brought one of her hands out from under his to place it on the back of his, fingers resting lightly against his knuckles. Her smile fell, just slightly. “It…it isn’t just that. Back in Detroit, everything happened so fast, and there was barely a moment to rest, or think. It’s hard to adjust to the...” She struggled to find the proper word, closing her eyes.

“The peace?” he guessed, holding out his other hand when she reached for it, letting her grasp both of them within hers.

“The _feelings_. Gratitude, companionship, love…” She frowned, looking up at him with a slight crease in her brow and searching his dark eyes for something. “ _Love_.”

By the way she said it, repeated it, he knew she didn’t mean the love a mother had for a child. No, not the type of love she had for Alice, because that had been there all along and had delivered them safely to this place.

It was a different kind of love—a kind he had come to know, too. A special kind that made him smile and feel _something_ he’d never felt before, when Kara was around. Something warmer than the fondness he felt for Alice and stronger than the reverent admiration he held for Rose and her family.

Luther smiled. “Kara…you worked so hard looking after us. I want to look after _you_ , now. Will you let me?”

Her smile returned, reaching her eyes. “Yes, I…I’d like that, Luther. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

He pulled his hands free from hers to wrap her in a gentle hug, closing his eyes as her head rested against his chest. He held her for a minute, maybe longer. Could have held her forever, but there was a reason he’d come downstairs, and he had to take care of her, now.

“Let’s go to bed, now. It’s time to rest. And tomorrow, we’ll take a break. Maybe go down by the lake and feed the geese with Alice.”

“Of course. Alice loves the geese.” Another soft smile spread across her face, but she didn’t pull away from the embrace immediately. “Actually, could we stay like this just a little longer…?”

“Only if you put the cleaning cloth down.”

She laughed—and wasn’t it just wonderful to hear her laugh. A beautiful, gentle sound that reminded him all was right with the world. But she did put the cloth down—dropped it on the coffee table and wrapped her arms around his waist, leaning into him, content.

If he’d known all it would take to pull her away from her old habits was a little affection, he would have stopped her sooner.


End file.
